Put Your Images in Hotels with Farmboy Fine Arts

For photographers, the firm operates in much the same way as a stock company. Photographers are free to send in their images, which are then made available to clients.

When a sale is made, the photographers are paid a royalty and a commission for each image licensed and for each time it's used. One photograph used in multiple places in a hotel then would generate multiple payments.

Farmboy's Stockyard Collection — its inventory of submitted images — is divided into six categories: abstract; architecture; landscape; lifestyle; organic; still life; and technology. The company tends not to accept images that are too "stocky."

When you submit your work for review, Farmboy will tell you what sort of imagery works best for them so that you can narrow down future submissions. In general, Farmboy is looking for artistic works — the kind that are the most fun to produce and the hardest to sell.

Sometimes, Farmboy issues call-outs for specific types of images demanded by a client. For example, the company recently has been looking for city-specific images as well as works that are "edgy," "conceptual" and "art-driven." Photographs submitted as a result of a call-out and not used by the client are placed in the Stockyard collection.

Farmboy Fine Arts provides a rare opportunity for photographers looking to earn money from their artistic images. Their open submission policy means that anyone can submit images for review, and there's certainly a sense of satisfaction that comes with knowing that your photos are hanging on a wall in a hotel somewhere.

Modest Commissions

But the rewards may be relatively low. Farmboy pays a commission based on its own gross profits. Photographers have reported incomes as low as $25 for each image and only $2 or $3 for each room in which the image is placed.

Farmboy might deal with art and sell to big clients, but the prices and bulk deals it strikes may make it the microstock version of commercial art photography, rather than a large commercial gallery.

And any images submitted also have to be exclusive. While you can sell an image submitted to Farmboy as a print, hang it in a gallery or exhibit it in a show, you can't license the image in any other way. If an image doesn't sell, though, you can remove it from Farmboy and try to license it elsewhere...."